


What's in a name

by jasminemai



Series: It's the little things in life [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, F/M, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 04:53:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10937397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminemai/pseuds/jasminemai
Summary: “Hey Felicity, when you and Oliver get married and you become my stepmom, will you change your last name to Queen?”





	What's in a name

**Author's Note:**

> Once again I am writing a story that is completely unrelated to So now you know, which if you have't already, you should totally go and check out because reasons. 
> 
> This is a continuation of 'In the wake of all things bad'. I wouldn't call it a sequel mostly because it kind of slots in and out of what's happened in the first story. You don't need to have read that one before reading this one, however it explains a few things that are probably good to know for this story.

They don’t get married right away. Crime doesn’t stop and the team is still rebuilding and growing. Plus, Barry screws up again and the Legends can’t get time right and Supergirl comes to visit because she’s sick of her Earth and there’s just not a whole lot of time.

Plus, there’s the fact that they all have day jobs to contend with. John’s taken up a full time job as her head of security, Lyla still runs ARGUS, Curtis is back working for her, Dinah is back at the police department, Oliver, Rene and Lance are all back at the Mayor’s office and she’s got a company to run.

When she’d come back on as CEO she’d wanted to make changes. As ideas had formed in her head, Palmer Tech became less and less Palmer Tech and more and more Smoak Tech. Which left her with a conundrum on her hands. One she hadn’t even considered before William, bless his soul, had brought it up on an after school ice-cream run.

“Hey Felicity, when you and Oliver get married and you become my stepmom, will you change your last name to Queen?” She blanches at the question, her mind struggling to comprehend the words racing through her mind.

“Well,” she begins in what could possibly be the worst starting point ever. “I haven’t really thought about it yet.”

“What do you mean? My mom used to tell me that she had hers all planned out before she had me.” William’s head is tilted to the side as he questions her. For about the millionth time, she can’t help but be struck by the similarities between William and Oliver.

“I just, it’s never occurred to me before.”

“I think you should change your name, for what it’s worth.”

She turns to face him fully. “And why’s that?”

William’s cheeks flush bright red. She might have more influence on this kid then she’d originally thought. The thought fills her with a happiness she hasn’t felt in a long time.

“Because then we’d all have the same last name, like a proper family.” His voice is soft and his eyes are full of hope as he watches her carefully.

She drapes an arm around his shoulders careful not to spill her ice-cream cone. “We’re always going to be a family, we don’t need last names to tell us that. But, if it means that much to you, well, I guess this is something we should talk about as a family.”

****

The topic of last names isn’t brought up until at least a whole week later. She and Oliver are having lunch in her office, having just come out of a planning and development meeting with all the department heads within the company as well as city planning officials.

“So,” she begins, and it strikes her that she really needs a better way to start conversations. “Will and I had an interesting conversation the other night.”

Oliver hums around his food, unsure of what to say or where the conversation could be going. He meets her eyes and gives her a look that plainly tells her to continue.

“He asked me about my last night. And your last name. And if I’d be changing mine when we get married. And it got me thinking.” As she’s been talking, her focus has been pulled to staring out the window, rather then watching as Oliver takes in her words. “Basically, the jist of it all is, what are we gonna do when we get married? I know we haven’t set a date or even talked about actually getting married I just wear the ring and we go on with our lives. Which isn’t a bad thing, I like it and we’re busy and stuff but I just keep thinking about this.”

Oliver chuckles underneath his breath at her ramble. “I agree that we should talk about it.” He pauses and places his food on the desk, moving around the side so that he’s kneeling on the ground next to her. “There is nothing more I could possibly want then for you to take my last name. For you to be Felicity Queen. But what I want isn’t important. It’s about what you want.”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious why Will asked me about it?” She asks, taking on of his hands in hers. “Because it was very cute and it made me realise that the kid is going to be breaking hearts the moment he hits puberty. And have fun with sitting down and having the talk with him, because if he’s anything like his father, then we should be concerned, and not that that’s a bad thing because his head doesn’t seem that far up his ass yet, but again that might all come back down to puberty and-”

“Felicity,” Oliver murmurs, redirecting her attention to him and not to thoughts about her adopted son. “What did Will say?”

She shakes her head to focus her thoughts better. “He said that he wants us to all have the same last names, because he wants us all to be a family. And at first I said that it doesn’t matter if we share the same last name because we’re family regardless, but the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t help but think that I want to have the same last name as you, and as Will and as any of our future children.”

Oliver smiles at her, a soft smile, one reserved for her and Will. “Good. I’m glad we’ve got that sorted.”

She laughs a little to herself. “Except now I’m left with a little bit of a problem.”

Oliver tilts his head to the side. “What is that?”

“I’m about to ask the board for permission to change the name of the company. I was going for Smoak Technologies. But that’s going to be a bit awkward when I’m not a Smoak anymore.” She holds her breath for some reason as soon as the words are out of her mouth. “I have something to show you.” She reaches into her bottom desk draw and fishes out the concept art she’d drawn up while she’d been helping Will with his homework each afternoon.

Oliver takes the art from her hands and studies them intently. He flicks between the two, admiring each of them, and taking the time to study them both.

“I like Queen Incorporated, for the record,” he tells her, handing back the designs. “But I love Smoak Technologies.”

“Oliver,” she sighs. “It would be wrong to have that on the side of a building. Especially if I change my last name. It would be completely wrong!”

“Felicity,” Oliver retorts. “You can hyphenate your name!”

“Oliver!” She pauses as she mulls over his words. “That’s not a terrible idea.”

He takes her hands again and bushes a kiss against her knuckles. “We have spent the last five years making this city a better place, the type of city that we can raise a family in, and I have no doubt in the world that what you’re going to do here is going to help. And there is no name that I would want on a building more than yours.”

She nods her head slightly, tears forming in her eyes as she considers his words. “I’ll make the call tomorrow.”

****

William learns very quickly that being the son of Mayor Queen and the adopted son of Felicity Smoak requires more than a few public outings with them. Normally they’re silly things like the opening of a building or the placement of a seat and usually he and Felicity can stand towards the back with Mr. Diggle and go unnoticed by the crowds. If they are noticed, Ms. Dinah and Mr. Rene create a barrier between them and anyone his immediate family don’t know.

Not today though. Today is different. Today Oliver had sat him down and explained that today was a really important day for Felicity. Today was the day that they’d be unveiling the new Smoak Technology building. Excitement bubbles up inside of him as he waits in the car on the way to pick up his Aunt Thea. He’d heard bits and pieces from the planning stages of the event today. He knew that there was going to be lots of food and all of his favourites would be there. He knew that Oliver had asked Aunt Thea to take him shopping to find a nice tie and a new outfit for the occasion.

And he knew that Felicity was so nervous that she’d spent the last five mornings throwing up as soon as she’d finished breakfast. He’d made her cards to help her feel better and had let her pick the nightly movie they’d watch before bed.

“Hey Oliver,” he starts, watching as Aunt Thea made her way down the stairs towards the waiting car. “Is Felicity going to be okay?”

Oliver frowns for a minute, studying him slightly. “What do you mean?”

William frowns slightly. “She’s been sick every morning.” He doesn’t mean to sound as rude as he knows that he has, but could his father really be that unobservant?

“Who’s been sick every morning?” Thea asks as she climbs in the car next to him.

“Felicity,” he tells her. He frowns a little as Thea and Oliver exchange glances at his words. Oliver shakes his head just slightly and Thea raises her eyebrows in reply. “It’s always after she eats breakfast. I feel bad because she says there’s nothing I can do.”

Thea’s eyes skyrocket further but at Oliver’s glare, she mimes locking her lips and throwing away the key.

When they finally get to the Smoak Tech building, crowds have already gathered and there are almost a million photographers aiming for a photo of the Queen family. Felicity is already inside, putting the ‘final finishing touches’ to the presentation she has to give with Curtis. Mr. Diggle is directing traffic in and out of the building and he nods to them as they drive past him.

He’s gotten to know the rest of Oliver’s extended family over the last few months. His favourite member of the family apart from Oliver and Felicity is Diggle by far. He spends the most time with them usually because he’s Felicity’s bodyguard and mostly because he and Oliver are also best friends and usually do lots of training together. Will’s asked to join them a few times but they both say no way to quickly and then he doesn’t bother to ask again. He decides he’ll ask again when he’s had a growth spurt.

He likes the rest of the team as well, don’t get him wrong, but after being an only child in a single parent household for the majority of his life, sometimes the rest of the team/family are just too loud for him. It’s a sentiment that everyone understands and respects, no-one more so then his adoptive parents and Diggle.

“Hey Hos, how you doing?” Rene greets him as they finally get out of the car in the underground carpark. Dinah is also around, talking into her sleeve, so Will knows that she’s here on business and not because it’s a family thing.

“Don’t call me that,” Thea tells him, threatening to punch him as she walks by. Oliver nods in Rene’s direction, however he moves straight over to Quinten and they start talking about something that Will is probably not allowed to know about yet.

They’re all escorted inside and upstairs by security, all the way to the top executive floor where Felicity and Curtis are gathered. Oliver immediately greets Felicity with a kiss before Thea jumps in for a hug as well.

“Nervous?” Thea asks, looking between Felicity and Curtis.

“Yup,” Curtis replies, “To my stomach. Don’t wanna do this. But I do because it’s so amazing. But I don’t because there’s a lot of people. And I don’t play well with other people.”

“That’s why you use Balls as your weapon of choice right? Next to no human interaction?” Rene quips from behind them, causing the rest of the adults in the room to laugh a little.

Chatter fills the room again and William finds himself wandering outside of the office and into the foyer area next door. There’s a big window there that he can look straight out from and he’s never seen Star City like this before, but looking out, he’s fairly happy that he gets to live here.

“Hey, you okay?” Felicity is approaching him, Oliver’s jacket wrapped around her shoulders until her assistant gets back with her dry cleaning. She looks super pretty, almost glowing and he can just feel the excitement that’s radiating from her. It’s infectious, and in that particular moment, her excitement catches on.

“Yeah,” he replies. “Star City is really something.”

Felicity smiles softly down at him as she stands next to him in front of the window. “Yeah it really is.”

“I miss my mom,” he admits to her, sighing a little as he says it. “But I like living with you and Oliver. It’s really confusing at times.”

She wraps an arm around his shoulder. “Yeah, I get that. We would never want to make you feel as though we were taking over from your mom, you know that right?”

He nods quickly. “I know.”

“Good. Oliver and I love you, no matter what.”

“I love you guys too,” he tells her. Her face lights up at his words and he can’t help but feel a surge of pride at the smile, knowing that he’s the one that put it there.

****

“When I started working for this company, well, the company that it was before it became this company, I knew that regardless of where I started off, I wanted to create technology that betters people’s lives. That was my goal in life. To make the world a better place. And some of the work that I did in the IT department and Queen Consolidated helped. When I started working for Ray Palmer, my goals didn’t change. I still had this overwhelming desire to improve the everyday technology around me to make it faster, more efficient, user friendly. I relished in being able to work in the R and D department till all hours working on this that and the other. That’s what made it so hard to take a step back from it all when I became CEO. Instead of doing the work myself, I had to oversee the work, delegate, trust others that they would understand my ideas, and support my goals. I was lucky enough to find these qualities with the team that is standing up here on stage with me. Without whom I would not be where I am today. So, I’d like to thank my entire executive team for their wonderful influence in this project over the last few months.”

A brief smattering of applause filters through the crowd at Felicity’s words, and Will can’t help but notice that Oliver’s eyes are shining in pride and maybe a little bit with tears. He knows the feeling, though so he doesn’t judge.

“I would also like to thank my wonderful family both biological and otherwise adopted for the late night calls, coffees at all hours despite the fact that I’d already had more than the recommend daily intake and allowing me to pick the movies every movie night. Yes I know you had it planned,” she takes her gaze away from the crowd and looks over at William and Oliver who both beam back at her. “It is because of them that I’ve had a little bit of trouble rebranding this company, however, given some recent good news, I am proud to announce that Queen Incorporated is now open for business. I can’t wait for you all to come and see the changes we’ve made to the office spaces as well as the beginnings of several new projects we are only just starting work on. I firmly believe that today will mark a new era for Queen Incorporated and a new era for Star City. Thank you and enjoy.”

Felicity steps away from the podium and shakes hands with a large black man, Mr. Steele, and then makes her way over to Oliver and William. From beside his father, William can see the look of sheer amazement written across his face as he meets her halfway. They hug, a huge hug, one that William knows from experience feels like the most comforting hug in the world. They pull away after a few seconds, and both of his adopted parents turn to him with the biggest grin across both of their faces. He moves forward to hug them both, completely oblivious to the tittering of the crowd in the background.

****

“Why Queen Incorporated?” William asks as they finally head home after the launch party in the newly redesigned office space of Queen Incorporated, the company Felicity now ran.

It kind of blew his mind, seeing his soon (hopefully) to be stepmother go from normal, home-body Felicity to CEO Felicity in a matter of seconds as she dealt with every problem that came her way. She rocked at it, he realised. She was a natural as well, her generally sunny personality drew everyone’s attention, especially those with Queen DNA.

But his favourite part of the day, even with the amazing food and entertainers and cool experiments, had been the moment the crowds had left, leaving only his new family behind. They had all continued to chatter away between themselves while Felicity had dealt with one final board member before re-joining them.

Almost immediately Thea was squealing about knowing it all along and Diggle was shaking his head and giving Oliver the biggest bro-hug he’d ever seen and Quinten had looked like a proud father as he watched over everyone. But no one in the room looked as happy as Oliver and Felicity when they finally pulled themselves free of their respective hugs and met in the middle again. They didn’t say anything, William noticed, they just looked at each other with heart eyes, before they hugged again.

“Well,” Felicity begins, placing her left hand over his fathers, highlighting the lovely diamond ring that sat atop her ring finger. “Do you remember when you asked me about my last night, and if I would change it to Queen when your dad and I get married?”

He bobs his head in agreement a few times, eyes flicking between the two again. “I said you should change your last name so that we can all be a family, and have the same last name as each other.”

Felicity nods agreement. “Well, I listened.”

****

William spends a lot of time sneaking around the loft when he should be sleeping. So far he’s found seven hidey holes that would be perfect for Nerf Gun wars and hide and seek. Not that he gets to play it that often because both of his parents freak out when he even brings up guns. He supposes that after being kidnapped twice he can’t really blame them.

The point is that he creeps around a lot. Except usually the adults are sleeping.

Tonight must be the exception, because both Oliver and Felicity have the balcony doors open and are standing shoulder to shoulder with their backs to him, looking out over the city. He’s seen them do this a few times before, usually they have wine glasses in their hands or coffee, if they both have lots of work to do and need a pick me up. He creeps closer and closer until he’s crouched down behind one of the pillars, still within earshot of their conversation.

“I thought we’d agreed on Smoak Technologies?” Oliver asks teasingly, bumping Felicity’s shoulder with his own.

She giggles when he uses enough force to move her slightly. “You said you liked the name. I still hadn’t decided.”

“I explained my reasoning!”

“Are you going to give me the chance to explain mine?” Oliver raises his hands, signalling for Felicity to continue. “I’m not trying to build this company up to be my legacy. I have a legacy, same as you and it doesn’t matter about the legality of it all. What we do to make this city a better place, it means something to the people in this city and I like to think they won’t forget that anytime soon. They might never know who’s behind it, but that’s okay. We’ve never been the type of people who need validation for our efforts and I certainly don’t intend to start now.”

“Felicity-”

“I’m still talking. Did you honestly think this was going to be anything but a monologue? How long have you known me for?”

Oliver holds his hand up in surrender and allows her to continue.

“If I had rebranded Palmer Tech two years ago I would have put my name on the top of that building. Hell, if they’d given me my job back sooner, it would probably still be Smoak Tech. But naming a company after myself, it feels wrong. So, I didn’t.”

“So what then?”

She pauses for a moment and when William takes another peak around the corner, Oliver has moved to stand behind Felicity, hugging her back against his chest. “I named it after our children. The one that we have, and the ones that we will have, because they will be our legacy Oliver. For all the good and bad and wrong things that we’ve done, our children will be the best part of that, and Queen Incorporated represents that.”

“Thank-you.” It’s barely above a whisper.

They lapse into silence for a few seconds, taking in the skyline.

“William?” Oliver calls, his eyes roaming the living room. “You can come out now.”

Flushing, William stands from his positon near the pillar and joins Oliver and Felicity on the balcony.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers, bowing his head.

Felicity laughs. “It’s okay.”

“I think it’s really cool you named a company after your future kids,” he tells her sincerely, although he feels a sadness rising in his chest that he can’t really hold down.

She laughs again, wrapping the blanket she’d had around herself around his shoulders as well. “I didn’t name it for our future children, I named it for the ones that exist now.”

He ponders her words for a few minutes before everything starts to click into place. “Wait a minute.” He says, holding up a hand and stepping out from the blanket to study Felicity more carefully. “You’re glowing, you’ve been sick like all the time lately and- Felicity?” His voice goes soft right at the end.

She nods her head, raising an eyebrow at him in amusement, as if she knows exactly what he’s going to ask next. He wonders for a second if he’s too predictable. He probably is he reasons.

“Are you and Oliver having a baby together? Am I going to be a big brother?” Fear tinges his voice but excitement overwhelms him and it shows.

Oliver and Felicity smile, nodding as the excitement wins out over fear any day. Will rushes forwards, wrapping his arms around Felicity and letting Oliver hug both of them close.

“Today was a good day,” he whispers under his breath. But both his parents have super hearing so they laugh a little before agreeing.

“Here’s to many many more.”

****

He calls Felicity mom one day and she flinches so bad that she smashes her tablet on the floor. She can’t really see her feet at the moment because one baby had turned into twins and now she’s triple the size she’s meant to be except he’s never allowed to say that out loud because she has a really scary loud voice and Will’s only heard it a few times and it’s usually at Rene and Curtis when they blow up something in the lab and he’s not super keen to have it directed it him.

He calls Oliver dad a few days later, trying it out on the tongue. They’re at the old Queen Manor, Oliver having finally agreed to teach him how to use a bow and arrow. He says it right as Oliver’s about to shoot his target and he flinches almost as much as Felicity does, except instead of dropping tablet, Oliver accidentally shoots Barry Allen in the back. Again. Apparently.

Anyway, that’s how he learns that his parents are Vigilantes and that his childhood hero was actually his stepmothers ex-boyfriend turned one of her closest friends and his family just gets a little bigger and a lot more complicated.

The point of all of this being that his parents, big scary superheroes that they are, seriously freak the first time he calls them anything but their birth names. A trait he seriously wishes passes before his twin siblings enter the world and gain their ability to talk. God knows what would happen then.

Anyway.

His parents become his parents right before his eyes and the transition is so smooth that he doesn’t realise there was one until it was over. He of course realises this way before his parents do and it brings him just a little bit of joy at the idea that he’s out thought the Green Arrow and Overwatch.

They officially adopted him the day they got married. It wasn’t on purpose, per say, more that he and Felicity had been in a car accident when she was only thirty weeks pregnant and his bad hadn’t been able to see her despite being the father to her unborn children and was in fact his biological father. They get married on the old Queen Manor grounds which look amazing thanks to Thea and basically the entire super hero population of Earth shows up to congratulate them all. They sign the adoption papers at the same time they sign the marriage license and with two pieces of paper, his entire life has been changed forever.

****

(When Felicity gives birth a few days after the calling her mom thing, William worries that her early labour is brought on by stress caused from him.)

((Turns out it’s not. It’s actually stressed caused by having a fiancée that likes to jump off buildings at night and the fact that she’s still running a Fortune 500 company from home because she’s supposed to be on bed-rest.))

(((Also unsurprisingly is the fact that during the labour process the entire team had arrived to check on their leaders, and had just as quickly departed the moment Felicity had taken Oliver’s hand mid-contraction and apparently broken it from squeezing to hard.)))

((((Needless to say, the loud voice comes out for the next seventeen hours of labour and William thinks that of all the bad guys his father has faced, perhaps he’s more scared of his pregnant fiancée then anything else in the world at this particular moment.))))

At the end of it all though, the whole thirty-nine hours of labour a fact his twin siblings will possibly never live down, William Clayton-Queen has one little brother and one little sister, both with blue eyes and fuzzy dark hair and he knows that there are going to be a whole lot more good days in his future.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed. I've got a few more ideas for additional stories in this universe so, pending writers block I'll try and get those up soon if you guys want them! Chuck me a comment to let me know what you think!


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